In about three weeks, Virginians will head to the polls to select the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.

Last week, the president declared his personal support for gay marriage. In the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates torpedoed an openly gay attorney's nomination to the bench.

I can still wear a red carnation. The second Sunday in May, coming up this week, is Mother's Day. It has been an official holiday since May 8, 1914, when Congress passed the law. Efforts to establish a national day to honor mothers started as early as the 1870s but stalled until the cause was taken up by Anna Marie Jarvis.

By Vivian J. Paige The four election officers looked bored. No wonder: At 2:30 pm Tuesday, I was voter No. 59 in my precinct in Norfolk. By the time the polls closed at 7, a whopping 103 people - out of 1,760 registered - had voted. Believe it or not, that was an improvement over four years ago, when 92 out of 1,634 registered voters in my precinct cast ballots.

On Tuesday, voters in Norfolk and Chesapeake, along with Williamsburg, Hampton and Newport News, will go to the polls to elect local candidates. Or, rather, some voters will go. If history is a guide, the vast majority - more than 90 percent in Norfolk, for example - will stay home and let others make the choice for them.

"A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." So claimed a circular put out in 1928, urging voters to support Herbert Hoover for president. He won in a landslide. Nearly all candidates for office make promises about what they will accomplish if elected. Virginia, with its perpetual campaign season, regularly exposes voters to these.

By Vivian J. Paige Sorry, Mr. President, but I disagree. The re-election campaign of Barack Obama has decided to embrace the heretofore pejorative "Obamacare" in reference to the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health care reform legislation enacted by Congress. The campaign believes it can take the sting out of the term by using it themselves.

By Vivian J. Paige No matter how you look at it, the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy, exacerbated by the lack of an arrest of the shooter.

By Vivian J. Paige

By Vivian J. Paige The field is set.